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Noah Cicero is the #1 explicator of Youngstown, Ohio:
August 18, 2008
I'm not sure what I should say about Noah. He is, best of all, a good honest person. I have been reading his things for a few years now, and his writing has become a big part of my life.
Noah Cicero writes from a place of evil. It's not the "Evil" of Republican flair, but rather, it's the evil that exist as humanity. Evil isn't trying to hurt people, it is a place of consumption, a place where people can derive joy from a deconstruction of reality, and the reconfiguring of it into a place of true human darkness and insight, if only for self-knowledge.
Most writers and artists get excited about being Writers or Artists, what that means, and how they can 'make their place' in a big world full of 'cool people' who should respect them for how 'special' they are.
Evil is the best reality a human can live with. When you see the world as an all-consuming clusterfuck of selfish pride and apathetic poor decisions, you start to enjoy not trying to be the 'most important thing,' and instead focus on your immediate relationships and the tiny moments of significance in your own life.
I think the best way to describe the way most writers and artists feel about their work is to say they look at the product of art like it's money-- Something to exert force on those around them in a subversive and highly powerful way. But Noah, at least from what I've been able to put together from his blog, books, and work that I've read, uses writing to exert force on his self.
Noah's writing isn't something that exists completely for other people, or to be the 'most important thing.' Instead, it is writing from a place of darkness and evil we all live in, but more importantly, Noah lives in. It's not trying to change you or manipulate you, it's just a man trying to piece together the fucked-up shit around him and a way that makes logical sense for him, in a way that's readable by others. And the result is work that is more honest than most, and more real than most.
The best work from the people I know and respect comes from a place of self-knowledge. We are all given a setting-- an amount of knowledge that comes with our surroundings and our family and circumstance, and it's not as important as writers or as people to manipulate those things for personal 'awesomeness,' as it is to record that setting for ourselves and maybe a few other people.
Other bloggers blogging about bloggers on blogging about other bloggers day:
Tao Lin blogs about Gene Morgan
Noah Cicero blogs about Shane Jones
Blake Butler blogs about Mike Bushnell
Jillian Clark blogs about Kathryn Regina
Zachary German blogs about Ryan Manning
Jereme Dean blogs about Blake Butler
Justin Rands blogs about Matthew Savoca
Kathryn Regina blogs about Ryan Manning
Ken Baumann blogs about Jereme Dean
Kendra Grant Malone blogs about Brandon Scott Gorrell
Matthew Savoca blogs about Gena Mohowish
Shane Jones blogs about Jillian Clark
Stephen Daniel Lewis blogs about TTB
Ryan Manning blogs about Tao Lin, Noah Cicero, and Brandon Scott Gorrell
Connor O'Brien blogs about Tao Lin
Mike Bushnell blogs about Zachary German
Colin Bassett Blogs about Chris Killen, Zachary German, Connor O'Brien, The Mississippi Review, and has a contest running about the 'most powerful writers of serious literature'
Chris Killen blogs about Ken Baumann
Kathryn Regina blogs about Kendra Grant Malone
Sam Pink blogs about everyone
comments
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you said that 'so good', i felt surprised about your understanding
i think you did a really good job
- brandon / August 18, 2008 7:35 PM
Compared to you I am a new visitor at Noah's site.
Your remarks about him are appropriate. These
are difficult times. I am older, and I have made
many poor choices. Am trying to raise the
percentage of my good decisions. Peace.
- Brian Salchert / August 19, 2008 9:33 AM
you guys all write 'the fucking same'
really.
come on.
cut it 'out'
or whatever
or 'something'
or 'stop doing this at least'
and quit it.
- 'whateverorsomething' / August 25, 2008 12:13 AM
If by "'the fucking same'" you mean using single quotation marks, then you are correct. I like the way they work and look. Sorry. Read another blog. Waste your time between masturbation on another site.
if you mean something else like say subject matter, you are a fucking idiot, and can eat ass.
Cite examples intelligently and without being an complete asshole, and I'll be glad to have a discussion beyond 'let me shit on your head.'
Also, anyone who leaves an anonymous comment is a fucking pussy.
Learn how to work the internet.
- gene / August 25, 2008 3:26 PM
'read another blog'
yes
i laughed
- colin / August 25, 2008 11:33 PM
No doubt. I agree with this post and the above comment.
Props Gene x2
- brandon / August 28, 2008 11:43 PM
im not familiar with this writers work in any significant sense. i wont prostrate in an attempt to commune with the ocean of invisible entities scrambling to have their opinions known or shared with others. commit this endeavor to a specific human creedence crawling on its knees. i can say this because i also define my isolated existence thru a virtual state of mythology, err i make visual art. im not sure if we can expect people to care. i seem to care a shitload about it from time to time. i dont view art as a means to an end, even if for many milleniums it has been coopted by the rich and wealthy. it would behoove us as an emerging generation of creative thinkers to stop viewing our work as a biproduct, or as a consumable good, and stand from just slightly afar at what was fortunate enough to be made and decide there and then how to engage it. right alongside missiles, dogfeces and popsicles... peace to gene, jenny and the babyboy
- andy grossfeldt / September 8, 2008 11:36 AM
Gene, you are such an incredible politician. You make Mama so proud!
- Amy / September 8, 2008 6:38 PM
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